Prior art hockey sticks essentially comprise a handle coupled to a blade. The handle and blade may be formed integrally as a single unit, or the two may be disengagably coupled by a male/female connection. Hockey stick handles and hockey blades can be crafted from a wide variety of materials including laminated wood, plastic, aluminum, graphite, and composite materials such as fiberglass. Standard hockey blades may be either neutral or curved. Neutral hockey blades are substantially straight while curved hockey blades display a longitudinal concave curve on a forehand striking face and a corresponding longitudinal convex curve on an opposite backhand striking face. Such traditional curved hockey stick blades have been noted to enjoy added control from the forehand striking face but suffer from reduced control on the backhand striking face.
Relatively recent improvements in hockey sticks disclose hockey stick blades with longitudinal concave curves on both the forehand striking face and the backhand striking face. (See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,582,405 to Montgomery.) Other hockey stick blades have been disclosed that have bifurcated toe portions whereby both striking faces present a longitudinal concave curve. (See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,799,682 to Hughes.) These and other devices are said to improve a player's control of a hockey puck on both the forehand and backhand striking faces.
In recent years, however, hockey sports wherein the game projectile is a ball instead of a puck have become increasingly popular. Present-day street hockey is played not only on streets but also in specially-constructed indoor rinks. Furthermore, the more recently developed sport of roller hockey continues to grow in popularity. Unfortunately, hockey sticks have failed to adapt accordingly to these hockey sports wherein the game projectile is spherical instead of flat and round. Furthermore, hockey sticks have not satisfactorily addressed the change in playing surface from ice to wood, pavement, or cement.
For example, the vertically flat striking faces of present day hockey sticks may be ideal for striking a flat-edged hockey puck, but they exhibit a number of disadvantages when employed to play hockey with a spherical hockey ball. One major disadvantage that is exhibited when a player seeks to stop a moving ball derives from the fact that a hockey ball rolls and does not slide as does a hockey puck. As a result, hockey balls rolling along a playing surface with significant rotary kinetic energy often climb up and roll over the striking face of the hockey blade whereby the player controlling that stick is unable to stop the ball. Furthermore, players using a stick with a vertically flat striking face often find it difficult to direct a vertically bouncing ball toward the ground where it can be controlled and struck. Still further, roller hockey and street hockey players often find that hockey blades with vertically flat striking faces often wedge a ball between the ground and the stick face when a player attempts to strike the ball such as in a slap shot. These and further disadvantages derive from present day hockey blades' being ill adapted for use with the spherical balls of roller hockey and street hockey.
Certainly, a hockey blade that presenting a solution to one or more of the aforementioned problems would be useful. However, a hockey blade that solved all of the aforementioned problems while providing a number of heretofore unrealized advantages would represent a marked advance in the art.